Torrential rainstorms and flooding unleashed by Typhoon Bilis killed at least 154 people across southeast China, according to latest Xinhua and local news reports.

It said 43 people died in Fujian Province, 78 in Hunan and 33 in Guangdong as swirling waters swept away homes and forced the evacuation of hundreds of thousands of people.

Local rescue teams, backed by the army, moved in to scoop families to safety. One baby was floated over the floods in a plastic basin and into the arms of waiting soldiers.

A mudslide triggered by the rains in the city of Zhangzhou killed 10 people and local officials held out little hope for a further 10 engulfed by a second landslide, state television said.

Emergency workers delivered tents, quilts and instant noodles to the victims of the storm.

Eleven seamen were plucked to safety before a Russian vessel sank in stormy seas off the Chinese coast on Saturday, Xinhua said.

Bilis ravaged the Philippines and China's Taiwan island before hitting the Chinese mainland, where it was downgraded to a tropical storm but still wrought havoc.

Flooding cut the main Beijing-Guangzhou railway line, stranding 5,000 passengers at the station in Changsha, Hunan's capital. Some 10,000 workers were repairing the inundated track.

In the city of Lechang, the streets were under 3 meters (10 feet) of water and more than 1,600 inmates were evacuated from the local prison, Xinhua said. In Leiyang, water levels had risen more than 10 meters since Friday to record heights.

Local weathermen said heavy rains or rainstorms would continue in Guangdong for the next couple of days.

Disaster officials put the number of dead at 28 in the Philippines, where more bodies were found on Saturday in swollen rivers and creeks and dug out from dozens of minor landslides.

The storm also caused one death in southern Taiwan.

(China Daily July 17, 2006)